TY - JOUR

T1 - Laser bioprinting of human iPSC-derived neural stem cells and neurons

T2 - Effect on cell survival, multipotency, differentiation, and neuronal activity

AU - Koch, Lothar

AU - Deiwick, Andrea

AU - Soriano, Jordi

AU - Chichkov, Boris

N1 - Funding Information: The research presented here was funded by European Union’s Horizon 2020 projects MESO-BRAIN, Grant 713140, PLATFORMA, Grant 951890, the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Spain, Grant PID2019-108842GB-C21), the Generalitat de Catalunya (Spain, Grant 2017-SGR-1061), and German Cluster of Excellence Ex62/2 Rebirth

PY - 2023/1/18

Y1 - 2023/1/18

N2 - Generation of human neuronal networks by three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting is promising for drug testing and hopefully will allow for the understanding of cellular mechanisms in brain tissue. The application of neural cells derived from human induced-pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) is an obvious choice, since hiPSCs provide access to cells unlimited in number and cell types that could be generated by differentiation. The questions in this regard include which neuronal differentiation stage is optimal for printing of such networks, and to what extent the addition of other cell types, especially astrocytes, supports network formation. These aspects are the focus of the present study, in which we applied a laser-based bioprinting technique and compared hiPSC-derived neural stem cells (NSCs) with neuronal differentiated NSCs, with and without the inclusion of co-printed astrocytes. In this study, we investigated in detail the effects of cell types, printed droplet size, and duration of differentiation before and after printing on viability, as well as proliferation, stemness, differentiation potential, formation of dendritic extensions and synapses, and functionality of the generated neuronal networks. We found a significant dependence of cell viability after dissociation on differentiation stage, but no impact of the printing process. Moreover, we observed a dependence of the abundance of neuronal dendrites on droplet size, a marked difference between printed cells and normal cell culture in terms of further differentiation of the cells, especially differentiation into astrocytes, as well as neuronal network formation and activity. Notably, there was a clear effect of admixed astrocytes on NSCs but not on neurons.

AB - Generation of human neuronal networks by three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting is promising for drug testing and hopefully will allow for the understanding of cellular mechanisms in brain tissue. The application of neural cells derived from human induced-pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) is an obvious choice, since hiPSCs provide access to cells unlimited in number and cell types that could be generated by differentiation. The questions in this regard include which neuronal differentiation stage is optimal for printing of such networks, and to what extent the addition of other cell types, especially astrocytes, supports network formation. These aspects are the focus of the present study, in which we applied a laser-based bioprinting technique and compared hiPSC-derived neural stem cells (NSCs) with neuronal differentiated NSCs, with and without the inclusion of co-printed astrocytes. In this study, we investigated in detail the effects of cell types, printed droplet size, and duration of differentiation before and after printing on viability, as well as proliferation, stemness, differentiation potential, formation of dendritic extensions and synapses, and functionality of the generated neuronal networks. We found a significant dependence of cell viability after dissociation on differentiation stage, but no impact of the printing process. Moreover, we observed a dependence of the abundance of neuronal dendrites on droplet size, a marked difference between printed cells and normal cell culture in terms of further differentiation of the cells, especially differentiation into astrocytes, as well as neuronal network formation and activity. Notably, there was a clear effect of admixed astrocytes on NSCs but not on neurons.

KW - Bioprinting

KW - Collective neuronal activity

KW - Laser

KW - Neural stem cells

KW - Neuronal networks

KW - Neurons

KW - Synapse

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85148613479&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.18063/IJB.V9I2.672

DO - 10.18063/IJB.V9I2.672

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85148613479

VL - 9

SP - 344

EP - 368

JO - International Journal of Bioprinting

JF - International Journal of Bioprinting

IS - 2

ER -